Local financial experts say don't panic over the NYSE meltdown

Today's protracted outage did not prevent trading on other exchanges. (FOX 8 Photo)

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) -

Local financial experts said despite technical glitches at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday that lasted for more than three hours, investors should not panic.

“Technical glitch is called 'gateway.' Gateway is sort of computer network connection where the financial institutions and traders connect with the main system to pull their orders, buy and sell orders,” said UNO Finance and Economics Professor Kabir Hassan.

He said the technical problems were not an anomaly.

"In 2013, NASDAQ had the same problem. For three hours it halted, and because of this, it was a big, huge disruption in stock trading,” Hassan said..

However, the outage prompted a lot of questions, such as whether or not local investors, including those with 401(k) accounts, be concerned that they may have lost money.

Certified Financial Planner Jude Boudreaux of Upperline Financial Planning, who is also an adjunct professor of personal finance at Loyola University, does not believe investors have a lot to worry about.

"It shouldn't, unless somebody was really trying to make a transaction on a stock today that was losing value. There really shouldn't be any cause for concern,” Boudreaux said.

The protracted outage did not prevent trading on other exchanges.

"You could always go and trade that stock on the NASDAQ or another exchange to be able to conclude a transaction,” Boudreaux said.

Hassan said it's no time for investors to make knee-jerk moves in the market.

"It doesn't really help any investors like us, okay, because first of all, we really do not play the game in the market. Our brokers, they're more knowledgeable, they have the technology in their hands,” he said.

"I think investors are nervous and people are looking for reasons to be concerned right now,” Boudreaux said.

Hassan said he is more concerned about what is happening with what could be the collective impact of the financial market in China and Greece’s financial plight.

"Unless China gets better or Greece's problem is solved, it's going to have an impact,” he said.

As for what caused things to go awry on Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange said it was internal, and the White House seemed to agree.

"At this point, there is no indication that malicious actors were involved in these technology issues,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

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